Formation of elliptical and spiral galaxies in rotating haloes

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Abstract
The formation of elliptical and spiral galaxies is studied within the frame of the White and Rees (1978) scenario for galaxy formation. The haloes would gain some angular momentum due to tidal interactions with their neighbours. Thus, each fragment forming in the gas collapsing in the halo would have intrinsic rotation as well. That would allow it to collapse only by a small factor leaving a large cross-section for coalescence to be important. On the other hand, fragmentation of the gas in the halo only becomes possible when the gas becomes self-gravitating, which occurs at a relatively late stage of collapse and then rotation plays a more important role. For some haloes coalescence time at the onset of self-gravitation is shorter than the collapse time. In such haloes only formation of disc systems would be possible. In haloes where the coalescence is negligible the gas would fragment at the onset of self-gravitation and the whole system would virialize violently to form elliptical galaxies.

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